28 Mar 2012
4 Comments

Destination: Coast to Coast (Moving from California to New Jersey)

There was no backing out now, all my worldly possessions, if you can call plates from Linen’s and Things and towels from Target worldly possessions, had been packed in boxes labeled 1 to 76; how Devin and I have accumulated 76 boxes of stuff I have no idea. And that’s even after I had given away tons of decorations, wine glasses, and patio furniture to my sisters and coworkers. Our one way tickets to Newark had been booked, and a lease was signed on our new apartment. The day had finally arrived- Devin and I would be leaving California to start a new adventure together in New Jersey.

No more California Sunsets

But plenty of lights from Times Square

This day had been 10 months in the making; although, ever since the first time I went to New York, in 2006, I had dreamed of living there for a few years before I got settled into a house, and started having kids. The company that Devin and I worked for wanted to open an office on the East Coast, and having recently obtained my degree and already being interested in moving out to New York I was the obvious choice to spearhead the move. So the researching and planning started. We developed a business plan, took several trips out to New Jersey to look at office buildings, picked the one we liked, got the company to sign a lease, started buying furniture, picking paint and carpet colors, and planned the grand opening. Honestly all by myself with no help or direction from the company I, a 24 year-old, was given absolute control over hundreds of thousands of dollars, thankfully for them it was a success.

So it had all boiled down to this, the office was ready to go, my bags packed and it was time to say goodbye to all our family and friends. It was a bittersweet moment, I mean I had wanted this, no one had forced me to move, yet I was leaving so much behind. Space for one- I mean in California Devin and I lived with my little sister in Huntington Beach in a two bedroom townhouse that had two patios, a garage, walk-in closets, and an attic- In New Jersey we were lucky to find an apartment with a bedroom large enough to fit our queen sized bed, and two people in the kitchen at the same time forget about it! Our beach cruisers- I mean I guess we could have taken our bikes, but there’s nowhere to store them because like I said our apartment lacks space, and it’s not only the bikes-  we were giving up the beach. Southern California has great beaches and I lived less than a mile away from one of the best in Huntington – now my nearest beach would be 40 minutes away and the beaches just aren’t the same. And year around beach going temperatures would no longer exist- now I would be faced with shoveling snow.

Huntington Beach Pier

Typical Southern California Beach

Typical NJ Beach

Seaside Heights New Jersey (aka MTVs Jersey Shore)

But at the same time I was gaining so much. Big city life, being able to go out at all hours of the night and see activity- people walking around, cabs honking, lights flickering, a city that really never sleeps. Seasons- I could actually see the trees changing colors in the fall, the flowers and bushes coming back to life in the spring, and the wonderful peacefulness of the snowy winters. No longer having to have a designated driver- with such good, reliable public transportation both Devin and I could go out and have a great time drinking together; instead of the usual one person gets wasted while the other sober one gets mildly annoyed at the other because they are drunk and acting stupid. And I could finally live somewhere else outside of California and actually choose where I want to live and settle down. While I love California, I never chose to live there, my parents didn’t even choose to live there nor did their parents; with both my grandparents immigrating into the country in the 50’s they went to live wherever their sponsor lived, which happened to be in California. I could now go out explore the world and actively make the choice where I wanted to live- and I do believe that California will always be my home.

View of New York from Hoboken

Broadway Theater Productions in NY

The Many Colors of the Empire State

Packing up the 76 boxes I mentioned earlier took several weeks. A lifelong procrastinator I couldn’t pack more than a box a day, its amazing how side tracked you can get looking through old photos instead of just packing them up; coupled with my old standby excuse of “needing it out”, because I couldn’t dare not have the potato peeler easily accessible.  Well as you can imagine the necessities that we would pack very last ended up being our whole apartment; which lead to us bubble wrapping and taping boxes up as the movers were knocking at our door to load everything. Once we were finally done and our apartment was completely empty Devin and I toasted with a swig of champagne (remember all the dishes were packed) and sat on the ground eating our last meal in our California home.

We weren’t flying out that night, we had decided to stay a few days in California with our families and still had a bit of loose ends to tie. There were our appliances I couldn’t get rid of on Craigslist which found their new home with Devin’s grandparents, and all the things I just couldn’t part with, yet no longer had room for in my place, which filled up my childhood bedroom. Despite being exhausted and ready for bed we couldn’t just get on the road- see while Devin went to grab our dinner I had let our cat, Bandit, out into the backyard. She was so freaked when the movers came and cleared the place and had nowhere to hide that I thought the backyard would calm her down- usually she would roll around and get into a tranquil like state after sniffing and chewing on the plants. Well that was a terrible mistake on my part, for not realizing the freaked out cat would run away… oops

I went outside to call her back several times, I put some food out (she comes running at the sound of Friskies being poured), but still nothing. I walked all around the block searching in every bush and under ever car, yet no signs of the cat. So we sat and waited and finally like two hours later she sneakily crawled back into the backyard and all I could do was smirk at Devin and tell him to save the lecture, she had come back!

We spent the last of our days hanging out with family and friends; we had already had three going away parties, one with our coworkers, one with Devin’s family and our friends from the orange county area, and then with my family and our friends from Murrieta. We had celebrated our leaving so many times that it had just become no big deal in my mind- and I had one last celebration to go before leaving, Lorenn’s Bachelorette party. That was amazing and you can read all about it.

Sunday I left the bachelorette party early in the morning so I could make the drive back to Murrieta, wash the last of my clothes, and re-pack my bags while barbecuing with my parents, grandparents, and Devin’s dad.  We had already said goodbye to Devin’s mom which was sad and had me shedding a few tears, but because we weren’t boarding the plane was a bit easier. Saying goodbye to everyone all at once and then getting in the car with my suitcases in the trunk had me bawling my eyes out. The drive to the airport in San Diego with my parents was surreal; looking out the window passing all the buildings that were so familiar yet would soon be so foreign to me.

We got to the airport and checked in showing our licenses the last time as Californians. I hugged and kissed my parents goodbye one last time and fought back the tears as my dad told Devin to take care of me.  I can’t even find the words to explain how I was feeling, sad yet anxious and excited at the same time with a dash of nervous.  Devin and I didn’t talk much that night- I think we were both too lost in our heads dealing with our own emotions. Our flight was a red-eye so we would wake up in the morning in our new home state.

We had chosen the town of Hoboken, New Jersey to call home. It’s right across the Hudson River from New York so on any given night you can  see the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and  One World Trade Center. It has direct access to New York via the Path Subway and takes about 15 minutes to get there, or a ridiculously expensive cab ride  (they won’t run the meter and jack up the fares, for a distance less than a mile you end up paying $10 a 1/5 mile as opposed to .40c) yet is on the Jersey side so that we could get to the office easily and inexpensively (the tolls are $12 which I can’t fathom paying each day if we were to live in New York). There are tons of bars and restaurants to eat at as well as cute boutiques along the main street of Washington. We found a cute brownstone right next to the park where the first game of baseball was ever played, and we have tons of windows with natural light shining through, which is a rarity in these parts; most people are lucky to have one window at the front of their apartment making the rest seem dark and cave like.  Hoboken is considered a mini-Manhattan and is the place to be in New Jersey.

Our cute little brownstone

We had scheduled our stuff to arrive on Wednesday so that we would have a day to get acquainted with where we were living and rested before diving into unpacking, but according to some unknown asterisk in the contract our stuff wouldn’t actually leave California until the day we said we were ready for it. So basically our stuff had been sitting in some storage facility somewhere and would be delayed a week until it got to us; so we went to Target bought a blow-up mattress and some pillows and made our makeshift apartment. Finally a week later all our 76 boxes arrived, and I was so thankful to have movers carrying it up the three sets of stairs and not to have to do it myself.

We were in the middle of a heat wave, it was 103 degrees outside, and the heat here isn’t a dry heat but a very wet, humid heat. Not only was it hot and humid but our building lacks central air and we hadn’t quite realized the importance of the window air conditioning unit (that was probably the last day we didn’t have one) so our poor movers were dripping wet carrying  all our things, again better them than me!

We jumped in and started unpacking and much to my horror I discovered something broken in just about every box I opened. I seriously have never seen so much broken glass in my life. Some of it was due to my poor packing, which was sticking something inside of the glass vase, even though they were both bubble wrapped  or stacking the cups inside one another and wrapping them as a group, and the others were from the handling of the movers. Your stuff gets loaded and unloaded off the truck several times in the transition, for example our stuff was loaded into a small truck in Huntington Beach, driven up to LA where it was unloaded into a warehouse until our call date, where it was reloaded onto a large truck along with other people’s stuff to travel cross-country, where it was unloaded in New York and then reloaded onto a small truck to be delivered to our apartment where it was finally unloaded into our place, if you are following along our stuff was moved a total of seven times. Needless to say our boxes were in pretty bad shape, several looking like someone climbed ten stories and then dropped them off the roof. Nothing that broke was irreplaceable or extremely valuable to me, and since we were downsizing anyway I saw it as a sign that we didn’t really need it.

We finally got our stuff settled in and started to explore the city since we were both working from home while the office build outs were being completed. We were able to eat at a few different places and get used to our new city and even get our New Jersey driver’s licenses.

And because I am such a procrastinator and am just now writing about my July move in March I am happy to report both Devin and I are loving life out here, are enjoying our first winter (although it is extremely mild and we have yet to be hit with a snow storm; it has only snowed three times, each time just a few inches) and are enjoying taking in the sites of the city, and exploring the East Coast from the tip of Maine, to the Jersey Shore, to Gettysburg. There is still tons more we want to do here and it’s great because we got plenty of time.

Trading in Disneyland for the Statue of Liberty

it's not disneyland... but is a very happy place!

It was a memorable move and I am so glad that Devin was there to help me through it and experience it with me because it’s not every day you pick up and move from Coast to Coast.

That’s my story…

xoxo, andrea

Peace & Love

Posted in Travel and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
05 Feb 2012
4 Comments

Destination: Black’s (Nude) Beach- San Diego, CA

If I never stepped foot on a nude beach again I could careless; I could even say that I would be relieved. I had my first nude beach experience at Black’s Beach in San Diego in June of 2011 before I left California as it was one of my must do bucket list items; and I’ll just say I had my fill to last me a lifetime.

If you’re anything like me and expect to see decent looking young bodies on the beach… you are wrong! No girls playfully kicking water at one another topless, no sexy guys with six packs and huge biceps throwing the football back and forth, no toned, tanned, naked bodies walking around laughing and having a good time, instead what you see is your grandpa completely naked with all his saggy wrinkly skin hanging out for all to see. And my feelings can be summarized in two words – Not Pretty!

I had wanted to check out a nude beach for quite sometime, the freedom of being able to layout and tan without getting harsh white lines was a dream come true for me. I had tried several times in my youth to eliminate those lines but each attempt ended unsuccessfully. The worst would have to be the time I was laying out topless in my backyard and my dad came home and saw me- yeah embarrassing. It ended with him screaming from inside the house ”Jesus Andrea, the neighbors can see you, what the hell are you thinking, get your top back on!” 

Putting my past embarrassment behind me I decided that I would once again attempt to layout topless, but instead of in my backyard this time at a place that actually encouraged it- the nude beach. So one gloomy June day Devin and I jumped in the car and headed to San Diego from our place in Huntington Beach.

I will say this right now- Devin is always such a trooper, since none of my girlfriends were around that weekend he volunteered to come along with me so I didn’t have to go it alone. Not all guys would voluntarily go to the nude beach where there is nothing but gay men walking around naked, but Devin is something special. I’m sure that he thought he would see a few naked chicks down there and not just all men- boy was he wrong! Always down for the cause he allows me to pursue my dreams- not that the nude beach was a huge dream of mine, just something I wanted needed to do.

Black’s Beach is located in the La Jolla area of San Diego. The best way to get there is to follow directions like you are going to the Torrey Pines Gliderport.You park your car at the top of the bluff and then start your decent down the man-made stairway built into the cliff side. The steps are steep and hell, which is why the beach remains quite secluded- climbing up and down is not for amateurs. By the time we were at the bottom of the steps my knees were aching from the impact of climbing down, they had buckled underneath me and made me fall a few times, but I was still determined.

I should have know what to expect when I saw an old man wearing see-through mesh shorts walking up the stairs, but I still carried on. Devin and I found a place to lay out that was away from the other people down there, even at a nude beach a girl needs some privacy, and spread our towels out. First we were both apprehensive about removing our clothing, I was tanning my back so I untied my top strings but that was as far as I could go. I couldn’t bring myself to remove my bottoms especially after what I witnessed next.

There are two types of guys down on the beach- the older (50′s – 60′s) gay guy that is respectfully nude sitting in the sand doing his own thing, and then the younger (20′s – 30′s) creepy mexican guys that walk around with binoculars. I couldn’t help but think about my old coworker Juan Carlos who would be the creepy guy with binoculars and his partner Greg who would be the older guy on the beach- did they meet here? My guess would be yes! Anyway, the guys with the binoculars were really making me feel uncomfortable, I didn’t like the fact they were in the bushes fully clothed looking at everyone else on the beach. To add to the uncomfort as I mentioned earlier to get to Black’s you park at the gliderport and walk down the stairs, so there are people hovering in the air on these big kite things right over all the nudist laying out. I find it a bit ironic, jumping off the cliff to hover above the beautiful beach oh and the naked old men.

So you got the people hovering in the air above you, the guys with binoculars, and then a few of the older gentlemen strutting their stuff back and forth on the beach for someone to notice and call them over. I couldn’t help but feel that I was in one of those places that the guys go to meet each other and rendezvous in the bushes. Throw in a few surfers in the water (the waves are supposed to be really good here) and that is the scene at Blacks.

Needless to say, I don’t feel the need to go back; but then I figured if you can’t beat them then you gotta join them. The rest of the story can be left up to your imagination…

That’s my story….

Peace & Love

xoxo, andrea

 

Posted in Beach, Day Trips, Girls Trip!, Weekend Getaway and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
18 Jan 2012
5 Comments

Destination: Palm Desert, CA – A Bachelorette Weekend

Everyone’s been there before, one of you best friends is getting married and you are left with the responsibility of providing her with the most fabulous last weekend as a single lady.  There are so many choices to make, are you the classy girls wine tasting, the wild girls on a pub crawl, the attention grabbing Vegas group.. or maybe somewhere in between… like Palm Springs, CA? Well that’s exactly where I found myself when one of my besties, Lorenn, was getting married.

The Bachelorette

While reluctant to give up on Vegas, where I desperately wanted to go with my first BFF tying the knot, Palm Springs, much to my surprise, was the perfect place for “Lorenn’s Last Fling Before The Ring.” I would recommend Palm Springs to any other bachelorette party, or just girls looking for a good ‘ole fashion girl’s weekend getaway.

The Hotel

In total there were 10 girls that came out to celebrate, split between the two days, which is part of the reason we opted for the closer destination of Palm Springs over Vegas. The other reason simply put, Kristi scored a huge deal on the hotel rooms, as a Marriott employee she was able to reserve the JW Marriott in Palm Desert for less than half of the listing price.

The hotel was super nice; it had 3 sparkling pools, an amazing golf course, a Japanese Steakhouse, well-manicured landscaping, and one of the hottest clubs in the area. Note I did say for the area, not a hot club by LA or New York standards; but it did have a line of people waiting to get in. Being with a bachelorette party meant two things, we needed a pool to layout by with cold drinks, and a place to go dancing; this hotel had both so we were completely content.

Landscaping at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert

I loved the idea of identifying ourselves as part of a bachelorette as we walked around the resort and if the penis straws, beads, and garters weren’t enough we each wore a customized t-shirt. The shirts read “I’m the ____ one!” and Lorenn got to fill in the blanks. Naturally she was the bride, I was the loud one, and then we had a mix of feisty, fun, behaved, sassy, married, sister, naughty and flirty.

Cheers!

I'm the ___ One!

Each girl got a gift bag with their t-shirt and accessories for the weekend (tattoos, beads, buttons, garters, penis straws, and commemorative lip gloss to always remember when “Lorenn Kissed the Single Life Good-bye”. It was a fun moment for each girl to open her bag and see what the bride really thought of her, if only she could be so honest. :)

Who says goodie bags are just for kiddie parties!

Lorenn Kisses the Single Life Good-Bye

Our weekend extravaganza took place in the middle of July which is just about the worst possible time ever to be in the Palm Springs/ Palm Desert area. The temperatures rise into the triple digits making it downright unbearable to be anywhere other than the pool or an air-conditioned room. So that’s right where we were – inside the pool all day long!

We eventually had to get out so that we could have some food, drinking margaritas all day with no food always has bad results, ours were really just silly. Sitting on stranger’s laps and sticking out butts out while someone photographed us from behind are just a few events that happened on our way back up to the room.

And the fun continued in the rooms. Eight girls all getting ready together is really an amazing feat, I mean surviving the fumes from all the hairspray and the heat from the blow-dryers is enough to make you wish you were a man that didn’t have to deal with any of that; let alone the hundred wardrobe changes and swaps that each girl must do before she is officially ready to go out for the night.  Two hours later we were all finally ready to go eat.

We went to dinner at Mikado, a Japanese Steakhouse inside of the hotel. If you go within the right hours you can take a gondola ride from the lobby to the restaurant, but we of course missed it. Also our rooms were right above the restaurant so it wouldn’t have made sense to walk all the way back to the lobby to get a ride from where we just were. This was the perfect spot for dinner with our large group. The restaurant had a loud atmosphere with a chef who cooked on the grill right in front of you creating an entertaining dining experience. Our chef threw little pieces of shrimps that we each had to catch in our mouths, created steaming volcanoes and made lots of fire. The food was decent, a bit pricey for what you get, but the martinis were amazing… need I say more!

The rest of the night went a little something like this- walking into Costas (the night club) one girl gets bent over by a big black guy who thrust his pelvis at her ass, drinks, girls sneak into the VIP table area and begin dancing on other people’s tables, more drinks, a few girls go back to bed, more drinks, old guy sucks for a buck, more drinks, girl gets motorboated by bachelor party, more girls go to leave as others stay out even longer, girls begin making themselves vomit on the way back to bed, finally everyone passes out. – It was seriously a great night!

The next morning we bid farewell to some of the girls who had to leave as we happily welcomed the newest batch and we started all over again.  Another day out by the pool sipping on frozen margaritas; it was a bit more crowded than before because it was Saturday so we made tons of friends and let the groups of guys buy us drinks. We even got invited on stage by the band to sing along to the song they were playing – Tom Petty’s American Girl- and I was the only one who knew some of the lyrics.

Singing with the Band

We had planned to do the same thing at night, go back to Costas, so we again began the two hour process of getting ready. While we were getting ready we started playing some bachelorette games the first being shaping a penis out of play dough… and of course I was the winner!

Can you guess which one is mine?

The next game was definitely the funniest and still has me smiling to this day. It was called “Who’s the Biggest Slut” which we turned into a drinking game, so if you had done whatever the card said you had to take a drink. As you can imagine the drinks were going down quite fast for everyone in the room. And while I can’t go into exact detail (girl weekend code) I will give you a snippet of our conversations: “You’ve done what! Really? How did you like it”, “Of course! Who hasn’t?!  I did in middle school”, “No I would never! That is seriously disgusting! How could all of you do that?!”, “I would maybe, and I mean maybe do that as a present on our wedding night”, “Can someone Google that?”, “Did it hurt?” and “I hated doing that, I thought they all smelled like that, yeah now I realize it was just him!” We all learned a bit about each other that night, even friends who had known each other for 10 years still didn’t know everything about one another.

We ended our night at Costas drinking and dancing the night away and once the “mom’s” went to bed a few of us shared a joint out by the lake. Eventually after eating all the snacks we had in the room we passed out for the night. The next morning everyone woke up and the girls got ready to go for massages while I drove back home to Murrieta for the last time; I was leaving for New Jersey that night.

It was the perfect way to spend Lorenn’s Bachelorette and my last weekend in California. I had a great time and so did the bride, which is all that matters. Her last* single weekend (she wasn’t getting married for two more months) was a success and I had created the best memories with my girlfriends to keep me going through the cold winters without them.

That’s my story…

Peace & Love

xoxo, andrea

Posted in Girls Trip!, Travel, Vacations, Weekend Getaway and tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
10 Jan 2012

Destination: Rodeo Drive- Beverly Hills, California

I don’t know what I was hoping for when I put this on my bucket list, maybe it was my love for Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and I was thinking it would be a uber fabulous day full of glitz and glam, but it was a bore. A total waste of my coveted four-day weekend away from work (it was Memorial Day so per company holiday policy we get the day off) 
 
Most of the stores were closed for the holiday so we -Devin and I- couldn’t even go in them (which was my fault for not thinking of that before driving an hour to get there) but more importantly these stores are now located everywhere! Not to sound like a snob but between South Coast Plaza in Orange County, San Diego, and traveling to New York and Chicago I have seen several Tiffany’s and Louis Vuitton’s. I guess I was expecting a feel of old Hollywood glam, but that was clearly lacking; all the stores had window displays that could be found in any part of the world, nothing special.


 
Devin and I wandered a bit but with most places being closed and my desire to buy something not being met we ditched old Rodeo to go the Glendale Galleria (A huge mall 30 minutes down the road). It was there that my shopping need was fixed with the purchase of a beautiful Burberry watch for Devin as a celebration to our eight year anniversary (which was the next day).
 
Overall I’m glad I went just to say I’ve been to Rodeo Drive but in reality it was nothing significant or special to me. With all the high-end designers being so commercially available in most malls in bigger cities I wouldn’t suggest visitors/tourist spend their day here. You would be better served walking up to the Hollywood sign. Regardless it was one more thing I did in California before I made the transition to New Jersey.
 
That’s my story… 
 
Peace & Love

xoxo, andrea

Posted in Day Trips, Shopping, Travel, Vacations and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
30 Dec 2011

Another Year Gone…

Another year gone and not much has changed, or has it. Well I’m still sitting  at work thinking of a resolution for the new coming year typing away on WordPress but now instead of being in Cali I am in Jersey. A year ago I made the resolution to begin documenting my life as a wanderer, a free-spirited traveler (take me back to this time last year) and like all resolutions started with a bang and slowly faded. I haven’t made the time to write lately which is horrible because I have done some traveling this year!

I wish I could get all my stories written and online before the new year, but I can’t there’s just too much… I mean I packed up all my things (well except the few boxes I couldn’t part with but didn’t really need that I left with my parents) and moved to New Jersey. That was a hell of an adventure and it’s still continuing. I went to Australia to watch one of my bff’s get married to the love of her life, ok let’s be honest and to snorkel the barrier reef. Devin and I drove up the coast to Maine and watched the sunrise at the first spot you can see it in the US.  And I even managed to cross off more California Bucket List items… but still no stories or photos.

2011 has been a hell of a year for me, the adventures I’ve been on are phenomenal and I promise that I will get them written down and posted this year, because yet another resolution I plan to write at least once a month. So stay tuned….

2012 you got high expectations to live up to!

Peace & Love

xoxo,

andrea

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17 Aug 2011
2 Comments

Snowboarding and the Beach in the Same Day- Destination: California

 Finally another drop in my bucket! With only one day left before Mountain High closed for the season Devin and I decided to cross off my desire to go snowboarding and to the beach within the same day.

This all started years ago while on a business trip in Connecticut. As I was sitting at the bar I struck up a conversation with a couple from Boston; eventually our conversation lead to a debate about where the better place to live was, Boston or California; and I eventually won by concluding, “Tell me where else in the world you can drive less than two hours to go snowboarding and to the beach within the same day,  and not your cold, no wave beach- but your Southern California girls in bikinis, guys riding the waves beach” as they dumbfoundedly looked towards one another for the answer, I smirked knowing once again I won. (ps- I never lose)

Like usual we were down to the wire, only one mountain was still open* for the spring season, and I say “open” meaning two lifts and  4 runs total. There was actually more dirt than snow on the mountain which was why it would be closing for the season the next day.  

The status of Mountain High on April 23, 2011

It had been about three years since the last time I laced up my snow boots and let me tell you this was not an easy feat. I don’t know if my boots had just been unbroken into- if that can even happen, or if my feet grew, but I could barely get my foot in. If that was my Cinderella moment, prince charming would have given up; I was totally the evil stepsister trying to squeeze my oversized foot into somewhere it didn’t belong.

It’s said  that  you never forget how to ride a bike, and while that may be true, you can forget how to ride a snowboard, or at least I did. At one time early in my “career” I had a season’s pass to the mountain and would go snowboarding on a weekly basis. I wasn’t the best, but I did once ride a box. This experience for me was by far one of my most embarrassing- well the time I ran into the ski instructor’s chair was worse, but at least that was my first time ever- this time I couldn’t ride toe side, so I spent the whole way down the mountain riding heel side zigzagging back and forth. I used to hate people who snowboarded like this, their unpredictable pattern down the mountain made it nearly impossible to pass, and when you tried to they would spastically fall right in front of you causing you to nearly fall also. Well today I was one of them, complete with the falling on my ass over and over again- and did I mention I was wearing jeans? As we were pulling out all of our gear the night before I noticed that my pants weren’t with everything else, with all the stores being closed I said F it I’ll be okay, I’m not going to fall… boy was I wrong!

Wearing my snazzy snow gear

After two runs I was exhausted and done snowboarding. I sat on a bench at the bottom of the mountain drinking a Coors Light sulking over my wet jeans, ache feet, and sore thighs. I couldn’t wait to get to the beach, but had to wait for Devin to go on a few more runs.  

Once Devin finally had his fill of snowboarding we threw our boards into the backseat of his car and headed towards the beach. Less than two hours later we laying in the sand listening to the seagulls crowing and children screaming as the cold waves crashed onto them (because the beach on a warm spring afternoon never has the peaceful waves crashing into the sand sound).

I have become somewhat of a wimp in my later years; the girl who used to bodyboard and hang in the water with all the guys was replaced by the girl who would rather lay out and bronze her body, and today was no exception. I really did want to try to surf with Devin to make my story more complete- snowboarding and surfing in the same day- but I couldn’t make it past dipping my feet into the cold water.

As Devin swam out with his surfboard I sat in my chair reading the latest Nicholas Sparks novel still amused with the fact that only in Southern California could a person go to the snow and to the beach in the same day- and I was now someone who had done it.

“As the complete procrastinator that I am, I starting writing this a few days after it happened and am just now getting around to finishing it up. I have since moved to New Jersey and am happy to report that the other day as I was talking about the homeland and what I would miss most to a new person I met I used the same line as I did to the couple in Connecticut several years back- that California is the only place in the world that I know of where a person can go snowboarding and layout at the beach in the same day within an hour from one another. xoxo California until we meet again, love from New Jersey…”

 andrea

Posted in Beach, Day Trips, Travel, Vacations, Weekend Getaway and tagged , , , , , , , ,
01 Apr 2011
1 Comment

Destination: Hollywood sign

Each country has its own nationally renowned landmark/monument, something that visitors from all over the world travel to see; the Eiffel tower in Paris, the pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India, and in the United States the Statue of Liberty in New York and Hollywood in California. While the United States has several other natural wonders like the Grand Canyon or Niagara falls, I feel that both Hollywood and the Statue of Liberty represent more of the “American Dream”- freedom and the chance to make it big. Millions of people flock to Hollywood each year to see the handprints outside Grauman’s Theater, their favorite star’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the mansions where the celebs live, and the 45 foot tall letters of the Hollywood sign.

Living in Southern California all my life I have driven by the Hollywood sign many of times on my way somewhere else and never ventured to see it up close; that is until I was moving.

A mere day after putting the finishing touches on my bucket list Devin and I were already crossing something off. It had been raining all week long, but when I woke up Saturday morning the sun was peeking through the clouds, so I decided it was the time to get out and get some fresh air. An hour after forcing myself to get out of bed I was at the base of Mt. Lee in Hollywood strapping on my backpack, getting ready for the hike.

Where the hike started

 

Devin holding Hollywood in the palm of his hand

The hike started off easy enough, uphill but on a smooth, hard packed trail; after ¼ mile the trail leveled off and was flat, gradually increasing in elevation. Somehow Devin and I missed the turn off to get to the Hollywood sign and ended up going east towards the Griffith Observatory; to get back on track we began cutting through the mountain side. The ground was all muddy, there were steep rocks to climb down and huge bushes to crawl under; the hike had suddenly become very difficult, not what we had been expecting.

We don't do trails, we create our own path

We only had our one water bottle (after Zion you would think we would learn our lesson), because everything we read about the hike said it was a quick 30 minute hike, uphill, but reasonable; little did we know we were detouring through the mountains. We honestly could have been those people that show up on the news that get lost going on some easy hike and end up dying. Luckily we found our way to the road and got back on track.

Finally we found our way back!

Yeah I said road, after walking on the hard packed dirt for a while it runs into an old service road, so you continue up to the sign on paved asphalt, why we were climbing through the mountains instead of on the asphalt…. I don’t know.

The clouds were rolling in as we were on the final ascent to the top of the mountain (which had become very steep at this point), so we knew we had limited time.

 

The clouds were rolling in

 The closest that you can get to the sign is 20 feet behind a metal chain link fence, but you still get the feel for how grand it is. Even better is the view of the Silver Lake reservoir and the city of Los Angeles.

The City of Angels

 

The view from the top of the Hollywood Sign

We took a few photos but began feeling rain drops so quickly began heading back down and all of a sudden out of no where gum ball sized hail drops were coming down on us. It only lasted for a few minutes and before we knew it we were back at our car. The hike was really cool and I want to go back up there to see where else the trails lead.

I am really glad I climbed to the top of the Hollywood sign and don’t have to worry about telling people I never did it while I lived in California. I would recommend it for anyone that lives in California or even for people that are just visiting.

Devin's Hollywood Head Shot

 

My Hollywood Glamour Sho

 

My Advice:

  • Check out this guy’s site before you try and go and read it all the way through, he gives you step by step directions so you don’t get lost like I did :) http://hollywoodsigntrip.com/
  • Look for the trail to split left, while you are walking you will pass a part where the trail cuts back behind you, uphill- this is where you want to go

  • If you go in the summer wear sunscreen, bring more than one waterbottle, and put on a big floppy hat – there is no shade on the trail.
  • If possible go in the early morning or evening

That’s my story…

Peace & Love

xoxo, andrea

Posted in Day Trips, Hiking, Travel, Weekend Getaway and tagged ,
25 Feb 2011

My California Bucket List

Well we’re movin on up, to the east side- literally. Devin and I have been offered the opportunity to help our company expand it’s operation to the East Coast; which means we will be packing our bags and heading to New York/ New Jersey.

Ever since the first time I visited New York I knew I would want to someday live there, if only for a few years. California will always be my home; I’m a laid back beach bum at heart, but something about high rises, subways, and corporate America has always turned me on. It may sound crazy but I love hearing all the noise of the big city (honking horns and all); it reminds me of growing up in a house with three siblings- never a quite moment (and if you know my family, you know what I am talking about- we are loud!) And while I look forward to all the new adventures in store for Devin and I, there is still so much left to do in California.

We have four months before the big move and within that time I have to knock off everything that I’ve been wanting/meaning to do, as it will be several years until I am back on a permanent basis. I just can’t be asked about “cool things” to do in California from some New Yorker and answer back- “well I never did it”. My goal is to cross off as many things as I can within the next four months…. and I’ll be sure to write all about them :)

My California Bucket List:

  • Snowboard and go to the beach within the same day

 I distinctly remember on a work trip to Connecticut arguing with a couple in the bar that California was way better than Boston because you could snowboard and go to the beach within the same day (a perfect weather beach at that). And they agreed because where else in the world can you do that- I still never have, but for argument’s sake I need to.

  • Ride my first wave, after all I do live in “Surf City USA”
  • Go beach camping one last time (I don’t care where- Carlsbad, Leo Carrillo, Pismo… I love them all)
  • Go to Blacks Beach in San Diego tanning all the areas where the sun normally doesn’t shine (it’s a nude beach)
  • See/feed the animals at the Wild Animal Park up close and personal, aka “San Diego Zoo Safari Park” (what a lame re-name), after all it is where Devin made our relationship official :)
  • Go to Yosemite and take Ansel Adams style pics- of course mine would be way better

I have been to Yosemite once before, on a crazy family vacation when I was 11. All six of us piled into my dad’s truck, which only seats six, and spent three weeks of the precious summer touring California Ghost Towns, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Reno Nevada. Oh and did I mention my brother was three years old sitting in his car-seat screaming the whole entire way. To say we bonded as a family is a complete understatement- it was torture! Needless to say I didn’t really look at Yosemite with all the amazement it deserves- come on I was 11 and actually had friends to hang out with. So now I would like to go back, really admire it, and put Ansel to shame!

  • Wine taste in Napa/Sonoma, Paso Robles, and Temecula Valleys
  • Hike to the Hollywood sign,  to see it up close and personal
  •  Ride the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier and walk the Venice Beach Boardwalk
  • Shop on Rodeo Drive… and maybe even buy something
  • Go clubbing in LA
  • Go to California Adventure- Disneyland… I’ve been there done that

There are probably others that are missing from my list, but these coupled with the things that I have already done should give me a good base. Once everything is checked off my list I will be a California expert, and will never have to answer “I never tried it”.  It will be a busy four months, but in the end so worth it!

Posted in Day Trips, Travel, Weekend Getaway and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
12 Feb 2011

Wine Tasting Santa Barbara (girls weekend getaway)

It was February 2009 and my friend Jessica was getting married in less than a month; we wanted to send her of in good fashion so we all gathered for a bachelorette party! Since Jessica was already a mommy and had been with her finance for several years Vegas wasn’t really her scene, instead we did a girls weekend wine tasting in Santa Barbara. At 7 am eleven of us piled into two cars with all our weekend bags in tow, I swear the bags took up more space then the passengers did (some girls just can’t leave without taking their whole closet with them – there were a few of them in our group).

Me, Sonia, Diana and Jessica before the festivities began

The drive from Long Beach to Santa Barbara went by really fast- especially because we were blasting Mariah Carey singing at the top of our lungs to all the songs. Before I knew it we were boarding the party bus, popping a few bottles of champagne, and heading to our first winery. Luckily our driver was a younger guy and didn’t really mind the eleven screaming girls in the backseat- but it was still early and he hadn’t seen the worst of us yet.

Sonia, Me, Kristen and Diana inside the party bus

 

Jessica, Jen and Sonia inside the party bus

Our first stop was at the Coquelicot tasting room in Los Olivos. Nestled between typical old town main street antique stores, this cute storefront has tons of ambience. As we walked in we were greeted by two younger women eager to serve us our first taste of wine, and an acoustic guitar player doing his rendition of popular songs.  This place set our mood for the rest of the day, fun. The wine wasn’t too impressive here, but it was a good place to start.

 

The next place we visited was Roblar Winery; their tasting room is actually on the vineyard, set in the rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley. The grounds were gorgeous and so was the inside of the tasting room, but our pourer was a real bitch. I mean by the way she was acting you would think the winery was giving her a bonus at the end of the night for only using one bottle of wine. Basically she would put a drop in our glass; just enough to get your lips wet but not enough to render an opinion on the wine. If the horrible pours weren’t enough, she would skip people and then argue with them saying she already poured them that wine. A real buzz kill on our party girl weekend.

But it didn’t last very long, we headed outside with a few bottles of wine and ate our lunch at picnic tables overlooking the vineyards. When we were done we were all in a good mood and couldn’t wait to go to the next winery.

 

Our picnic in the Vineyards

The last stop on our tour was Sunstone Winery. By the time we arrived we were all pretty frisky, as you can see by the picture beneath we were letting out our inner tigers. We didn’t need to taste anymore wine, but we did. The wine at this winery was actually really good- now I don’t know if it was because I had been drinking all day and everything tasted good or if it was true. Their Eros wine was delicious- it just so happened to be the most expensive bottle.

Dani, Jessica, Julia, Kristen and I letting out our "inner tigers"

I bought a bottle of the Eros to take home to Devin and was so scared when we went to actually drink it; I forewarned him that although I thought it was delicious at the time, I would have probably thought the same thing about a bottle of 2 buck chuck from Trader Joe’s. Luckily although extremely intoxicated, I could still pick out a good wine.

Our poor driver must have wanted to kill himself on the ride home. We stole his hat and each took our turn posing with it, while playing Estelle’s American Girl on repeat, singing it at the top of our lungs. He was a good sport, but I’m sure he was relieved by the time he dropped us off.

By the time we got back to the hotel we all needed a nap, but only a few girls actually took one- like usual the room I was sharing was the party room, so me and my girlfriends stayed up dancing. Eventually we were all ready to go eat so we headed out for a dinner. We dined at Opal which is a really nice restaurant and most of the food was good- however my friend Kristen and I both ordered the nastiest thing there.

After watching a few seasons of Hell’s Kitchen I had always wanted to try risotto, so I ordered it. It came out soggy with practically an entire rosemary bush on it. I was extremely disappointed with risotto and have never ordered it again. Jessica bless her heart wanted to buy us all drinks to celebrate the weekend so she ordered 3 bottles of wine. But by that time we were all wined out, needless to say by the time we left there was still a full bottle on the table.

We got to some club and I swear it was like we were transported to Mexico. These creepy men were all over us (they were honestly about 35 years old and were fresh from the border). We pretty much stuck to ourselves trying to save each other from being groped. Slowly our group died off, with more and more heading back to the hotel too tired to stay out. When we got to the point that three of us had to finish one beer it was our cue to leave (in our defense it was a Budweiser one of the most disgusting beers made). But not without a pit stop first; we were ready to leave the club, but not to stop drinking so we made the taxi driver take us to the liquor store. There was no way we needed anymore to drink- we couldn’t even tell the guy which hotel to take us to (all that we could remember was that it was a big white building across from the beach) somehow he figured it out and took us to the right place.

When we got back to the hotel we didn’t last very long. Kristen passed out in the bathroom, head hanging in the toilet bowl; Diana and I poured ourselves drinks, but didn’t even take a sip, and I spent an hour on the patio getting fresh air so that I wouldn’t get sick. Eventually we all passed out.

The group that had gone home early woke up bright and early in the morning, showered, put on makeup, and ate breakfast; we were still in bed sleeping. Somehow we finally made it out of bed and went to go eat. Kristen was still feeling sick and now so was I. We both ordered a side of toast and hash browns and touched none of it, Sonia and Diana weren’t feeling great either so we opted to head home straight from breakfast. The ride home was not nearly as fun as the ride there. Kristen had her head in a plastic bag throwing up the whole ride home, Diana began throwing up at the sight of Kristen, and I just covered my face with my sweatshirt knowing that if i continued to see/smell/hear the two of them that I would be next. Sonia just kept driving trying to get us home as soon as possible.

As soon as I got home I jumped into bed and took a nap. It was such a fun girls weekend and the wineries in Santa Barbara actually had good wine. I can’t wait to go back and try some more of the wineries… who needs a bachelorette party!!

That’s my story…

Peace & Love

xoxo, andrea

Posted in Day Trips, Road Trip, Travel, Weekend Getaway, wine and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
01 Feb 2011

Destination: Oahu, Hawaii

Courtesy of United Devin and I took a weeklong vacation to Oahu in April of 2008. We had been flying a lot for work and caught a series of bad flights: delays, cancellations and lost baggage; all fairly common occurrences. (In the four years that I have been consistently flying my baggage has been lost three times, and I once had to spend an extra night in Cleveland due to my flight being canceled with nothing else available to be rebooked on).  To make up for all our inconveniences United gave us travel vouchers. I had always wanted to go to Hawaii and with a practically free flight I thought why not!

We drank complimentary Mai Tais on our way to paradise and when we finally landed took a shuttle bus into Waikiki.  Our hotel was on the very edge, which later ended up being a pain in the ass with all the walking we had to do, but was really nice and affordable. The first thing we did was drop off our luggage, change into our bathing suits, and run down to the beach (how can you do anything else when you’re in Hawaii!)

Our view into the city of Honolulu

Since our room had a kitchenette we walked to the nearest ABC store (if you thought Starbucks in New York was bad, you can’t go five feet in Oahu without hitting an ABC store) and bought some stuff for the rest of the week. Our first night was pretty mellow especially because we were feeling a little jet lagged, but we made complete use out of our first full day. We explored the more touristy destinations on Waikiki, the shops and restaurants. Out of all the places we checked out, the international market place was my favorite; it’s not one store in particular but a series of carts with all the trinkets imaginable. Frequenting Mexico has made me very fond of bartering, and this was the area for that; you see a necklace you like at one stand you better bet the next one has it and for fifty cents less. So by the end of the day I walked out with souvenirs for everyone, and a few things for myself (let’s face it, it’s not really better to give then receive, whoever made that line up was just tired of feeling sorry for themselves when they never got anything in return!) I even discovered my favorite thing: pick-a-pearl.

Every other stand has oysters in a bucket that you can open up and “pick” the pearl inside, but the beauty of it is, before you pick it you can choose a raffle ticket for a discount; the highest that I ever picked was 60% off and I walked away with a HUGE black pearl for $7. According to the lady helping me, ”it was the largest one she’d ever seen” and she offered to buy it off me, but I held onto it as well as four others I picked; taking them all home swearing that I would design my own necklace (to this day, 3 years later, the pearls are still sitting in a bag).

We spent the next few days lounging at the beach, sipping on daiquiris, and working on our tans; but eventually needed a change in scenery, so we rented a car and drove up through the pineapple farms into North Shore.   Our first stop was at Waimea Falls so we could hike to a “big waterfall”; it ended up being tiny and was pretty disappointing.  The park itself was really pretty though, it had tons of flowers and tropical plants.

the "huge" waterfall we hiked to

The whole time we were in Hawaii Devin and I wanted to see sea turtles and next we got our chance; we went to Laniakea Beach, where sea turtles just bask in the sun all afternoon. There is an agency ( Save the Sea Turtles International) that comes and sets up shop around the turtle roping him off to protect him. Leave it to the U.S. to regulate sea turtles on the beach, but we got a few pictures.

Our first sea turtle encounter at Laniakea Beach

Afterwards we went snorkeling at Shark’s Cove. The water was so clear, and the fish were so vibrant; the whole scene was so peaceful that I had to shake it up a bit. I was standing on the rocks looking for urchins and anemones when a huge wave came over the barrier and pushed me down. It was so powerful that it dragged me along the bottom of the sea floor, scratching my body with all the sharp rocks, and leaving me breathless as I struggled to get up. Devin just sat back and watched the whole thing happen, I think he may have even caught it on camera. I was yelling at him to take my picture right before I was pummeled by the wave; the underwater camera is still sitting at home, never developed.

Read more…

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